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Jays slam Dodgers 12-1

“To get booed like that, I take it personally,” said Thomas, who
cleared the bases in the second with career homer No. 497 to propel
Toronto to a one sided 12-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at the
Rogers Centre, referring to Tuesday night's fiasco.

Toronto Blue Jays Frank Thomas is congratulated by teamates after hitting a grand slam in the second inning against the L.A. Dodgers on June 20 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. (VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Mark ZwolinskiSports Reporter

Wed., June 20, 2007

The sound of thousands of fans raining boos down on his ears can make a professional baseball player feel a lot of things.

Frank Thomas, and for that matter, the rest of his Toronto Blue Jays teammates, absorbed the wrath of their fans Tuesday night and it left them sombre and embarassed.

Mostly though, it filled them with resolve to bounce back tonight with a statement type game to convince the boo birds the team has some mettle and character in its makeup.

Thanks to a Thomas grand slam, yet another pitching gem from Roy Halladay, and an overall booming offence, the point was made.

“To get booed like that, I take it personally,” said Thomas, who cleared the bases in the second with career homer No. 497 to propel Toronto to a one sided 12-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Rogers Centre.

“As a professional athlete you have to hear it, you have to take it personally.”
Thomas’ granny capped an eight run second inning, the Jays largest single inning of the season and more than enough to prop up eight innings of six hitter from Halladay, who won for the third straight start and climbed to 8-2.

Thomas is now three homers shy of becoming the 21st player ever to reach the 500 homer plateau. And on this night, Halladay struck out four Dodgers to reach 1,000 in his career and join Jim Clancy, Pat Hentgen, Dave Stieb, and Juan Guzman, as the only other Jays to reach that many punch outs.

All great stuff for the history books, but for Thomas, who popped out meekly four straight times in Tuesday’s 10-1 loss, the key was coming back with a convincing win.

“I’m in a new place and I guess the fans take it personally too,” said Thomas, who hit his second grand slam of the season and 10th of his career.

“But we deserved it, we got killed … you could hear a pin drop in here (dressing room, Tuesday night). It was great to see it (10 hit break out last night). That last at-bat (Tuesday), I really heard it. It’s one of those things and I wanted to bring attitude to tonight’s game, I wanted to be aggressive.”

The slam was Thomas’ 10th homer of the year and bumped his RBI total to 29, and raised his average five points to .231. Not numbers the Jays expected out of a future hall of famer, but the implication now is that Thomas is on the verge of repeating a hot streak from 2006 that saw him hit 32 homers and drive in 92 runs over the final 100 games of the season (the Jays have 91 games remaining).

Thomas and the rest of the Jays believe it’s only a matter of time before the 6-foot-7, 275-pounder breaks out. But more importantly is the Jays record – now 34-36 – and the opportunity to climb back into the wild card.

“I was happy with that at-bat,” said Thomas, who worked Dodgers starter Hong Chih Kuo to a full count before slamming a curve ball into the second deck in left field.

“I was happy because it’s the kind of at-bat that can change your game. If this team gets healthy, and with the hitters we have in here, we can bounce back for that wild card. That’s the goal for this team, if everyone gets healthy, we can make a run.”

The Jays wild card hopes remain a formidable uphill climb – they need to make up eight games on both Cleveland and Detroit. In the meantime, their injury list – which has claimed 11 regulars this season – should return Reed Johnson (back surgery) and Lyle Overbay (broken hand) by the all-star break.

The Jays clubhouse obviously has this tall task tucked firmly in their minds, and last night they got more offense and great pitching from Halladay to boost their confidence.

Gregg Zaun and Matt Stairs stroked back to back homers in the third to make it 10-0. Zaun also had three RBI on the night and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

Halladay proved once again he possesses one of the game’s most focused minds as he worked almost flawlessly despite the huge lead.

As for reaching 1,000 career strikeouts, Halladay took it all in stride.
“I never considered myself a strikeout pitcher, it’s one of those things that comes along,”said Halladay, who struck out Marlon Anderson in the eighth inning to reach the magical mark.

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